Saturday, November 23, 2013

We take ourselves seriously and our pain personally.
Preoccupied with a particular plight or cause, we elevate our own trials and
overlook the trying position of others:

"My life sucks. No one gets me.
You wouldn't understand."

"They're the enemy, not like us.
Expendable! Do what you need to do."

"Listen kid, just wait till
you're older with real, adult problems."

"Go ahead, dude. It's only a
frog. I bet it won't even feel it..."

Of course, friction rubs us all. Perhaps we're more aware of it than fish, and
fish more aware than the coral they nibble at, but suffering is an
interconnecting theme. Presidents, bus
drivers, cats, and trees―they each have bad days, obstacles to circumvent,
entropy to manage.

When we recognize that difficulty is shared, that our burdens
are not unique, it humbles and connects us. In place of resentment and
isolation, we develop empathy and community, which in turn encourages
cooperation and peace.

Saturday, November 9, 2013

Smallness seems
inversely related to ugliness and tends to neutralize otherwise unattractive
features. The very same qualities that repel us in large creatures become
tolerable―even adorable―in tiny ones.

The fattest baby is
first to be fawned over, but if she stays that way she'll be last to the prom. The
squashed, salivatory nature of a pug is irresistible while the equally droopy
walrus is far less endearing up close. E.T. was a slimy, gangly bowel movement
with a kazoo voice, but he was totally cute relative to H.R. Giger's towering,
exoskeletal Alien.

When he's fully grown,
we'll likely flee in revulsion from this awkward, bucktoothed monstrosity. For
now, he's just a vulnerable wittle weirdo to coo-chee-coo.

Saturday, November 2, 2013

Language is more than a
sequence of identification symbols. When
employed by an entire population over generations, words form a collective
cultural mind that transcends dictionary definitions. This is one reason why direct grammatical
translation from one language to another often results in garbled nonsense.

I experienced this loss in
translation firsthand during my year in China. Naturally, most information was
in Mandarin. At times, however, I
happened upon Chinese products with bits of “English” added for commercial
appeal. My favorite was the packaging on
a box of sweet buns in a Shanghai convenience store. I gathered the intended
message was, “Hey, customer! Don’t miss this great product!” but what it
literally said was, “Hi! Person don’t avoid!”

I get to relive such moments
when I go for Chinese food in the states, as some of the most entertaining
ambiguity comes on little paper ribbons housed in flour, sugar, vanilla, and
sesame seed oil. The fortune cookie, carrier of incomprehensible wisdom: May
your eggs hatch with honor. Last to eat is first in retreat. An iron rooster clucks in silence. Lucky numbers: 9, 10, 77, 1,000,001½.